Just "curing" wise.....I just shot some Rustolium Satin on my dash, ashtray and glovebox. The Satin lists Acetone as it's thinner. Each part was sandblasted, metal prepped, wiped with Prep-Sol, dryed and first a level of thin green etching done, light resand, then shot. My first piece was the glovebox, and noticed the paint was too thick even thinned to the Rustolium's recommended 15%(It showed the same exact "orange peel" effect, as the gentlemen showed above--though he was rolling, and this was Satin, not gloss!) Upon adding thinning it farther, round 10%, it flowed like glass on the other parts, self leveled, with several "sprayed" coats(and I tried to help level the glovebox with more thinned coats--bad mistake)
The dash and ashtry finished, I concentrated on the glovebox, which had sat 3 days. Wet sanded with 600 to get the orange peel/sag out....slight wipe with Prepsol getting ready for the shoot, and the paint wiped completely off..and the rest could be scratched via fingernail-aka, still soft.(sound familiar...and I'm a shooter, not a roller)
So..in a nutshell, either shooting or rolling, the paint really needs to be on the thinner side of life to prevent the orange peel effect-- and any sanding breaks the upper crust of where the paint has hardened. For full, full boned cure, me also thinks far over a month is gonna be the norm, for the fingernail test--especially for mineral spirits which will take far longer to gas off.
We did parts(but shot) on my Bud's Camaro some years back with Rustolium, inner fenders, etc...and properly cured, tough as nails--and he washes the poop outta it.
